Sealed with a kiss
by Cerasi-chan
Summary: Neji and Hinata switch places quite literally. NejiHina.


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Sealed with a kiss

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There is a second knock at the door. She does not need to turn around to know that it is Neji, no one else but him and the servants come to her in her room, and they never knock more than once. And she is surprised to find herself bristling at the thought.

(Even the servants don't care anymore.)

'Come in, Neji-niisan,' she says. The door opens by a crack, and Neji's body, slim and taut slips in.

'...Hinata-sama.'

Hinata eyes him almost angrily. What on earth did he want from her? What more could she give him, now that he was the heir and she had been cast away like yesterday's issue of The Konoha Times?

'Hinata-sama...I...' He holds out a white long-sleeved shirt with a large tear in the side. 'I was careless during training. Would you please fix it for me?'

She bites her tongue to keep from saying something nasty and sarcastic.

'Why don't you ask one of the servants to do it for you?' she asks, as nicely as possible. And then 'You are the heir, after all.' It slips out before she can stop it, and the look Neji gives her is full of pain.

'I just thought...I was just remembering...' he starts to say.

'Remembering what?' Hinata asks, feeling hot tears prick the back of her translucent eyes. Why does she feel like crying? There is nothing to cry about, it is done, finished.

Neji takes a deep breath. 'You remember Pan-Pan, right.' It hurts his pride to say the name, but ah well.

Hinata frowns, trying to picture it. 'Your stuffed dog? The one my mother gave you when you were small?'

He nods, gratefully. 'We were playing in a field when I accidentally ripped one of his ears off.'

Now she smiles slightly, a shadow of the cute child-like smile he has known all his life. 'You were hysterical.'

'No I wasn't!' His voice holds the epitome of indignation. 'Well. Maybe a little.'

'That's an understatement.' By now she has wiped the tears away with the back of her hand, when she thought he wasn't looking. But he noticed(such things do not often escape eyes like his), and hurries along.

'But you fixed his ear back for me. Better than any toymaker could have.'

'And your point is?' (Hinata knows what his point is.)

'You know what my point is. Don't make me launch into the details of the reunion of Two-eared Pan-Pan and I.'

She is genuinely smiling now. 'Okay. I'll fix it, Neji-niisan.'

He grins back at her. In the months after the chuunin exam, he had begun to discover what it was to live and laugh again. He smiled more, and could even joke lightly with the green-clad psychos in his team. He and Hinata had grown closer and closer...that is, until her ass of a father had decided to ruin things(a specialty of his) by branding Hinata with the curse seal and making Neji the heir. Of course it was all Neji ever wanted, ever dreamed of. ...Only, he didn't want it to happen this way.

'I'll have it ready by tomorrow morning,' she is saying. 'Is that fine with you?'

'Yes, that would be great...' He hesitates. 'Hinata-sama, there's something else I want to say to you.'

'Nande?'

He reaches one hand out, fingers slipping beneath the blue-black fringe of hair framing her forehead. He feels her tremble as he traces the four points of the seal burnt into her soft white skin.

'You did this to me, long ago,' his voice is barely a whisper in her ear. 'It was the day after I got my seal. You said 'Does it hurt, Neji-niisan?' and you cried when I wouldn't let you kiss it to make it better and pushed you away from me.'

'Please, Neji-niisan...' Hinata cringes at the memory, why is he reminding her of that painful day? Strange that they have now switched positions.

Unexpectedly, he draws her into his arms. 'Now will you let me do what I wouldn't let you do all those years ago?' he asks, hugging her tightly. Tears are coursing down her cheeks and leaving wet patches on his shirt, but she manages to choke out a 'Niisan! I...yes...'

And slowly, he brushes her hair away, capturing the seal and all the hate it held in one tender kiss.


End file.
